City of Hillsboro, Oregon

One city’s mixed fleet sets up to serve citizens better, faster.

Serving a city of approximately 106,000 residents takes a collection of departments, including public works, water, and parks & recreation, as well as centralized services such as human resources and information services. Most departments need access to easy, reliable use of the city’s mixed fleet.

Responsibility for the City of Hillsboro’s fleet AVL management lies with Greg Stiffler, the Public Works Systems Analyst. His responsibility included leading an effort to evaluate smart fleet management platforms that seamlessly supports passenger vehicles, snow plows, sweepers, light-duty vehicles and more.

Hillsboro chose Zonar smart fleet management and mobility solutions to solve for numerous critical priorities.

• Optimize dispatch for regular city public works projects.
• Quickly locate stranded city vehicles.
• Investigate public concerns and exonerate safe drivers.
• Track snow plows in real time for insight into which roadways have been treated.
• More accurately report for environmental compliance.
• Implement light-duty vehicle tracking units that install quickly and easily.

Instantly locate to quickly dispatch.

Serving the public means responding to issues at a moment’s notice. Before implementing Zonar smart fleet solutions, department personnel had to call each driver for their location in the field. Then decide which unit to send, or if it was faster to dispatch one from a City facility. But city fleet vehicles need to be easy to mobilize.

Zonar GPS tracking enables real-time, online vehicle tracking. Fleet vehicles were outfitted with a Zonar V4 TCU, which captures and feeds location data to the secure online portal, Zonar Ground Traffic Control. Now, when an issue is reported, authorized personnel log on and quickly locate the nearest fleet unit on a live map view; no calling around

Prior to using Zonar GPS tracking, knowing where to send help was difficult when a fleet vehicle blew a tire or was in an accident.

City fleet vehicles travel to remote areas such as reservoirs, which lack cross-streets or identifying signage. Stranded drivers had to describe the landscape or notable markers, and estimate how many miles they were from the nearest mapped location. Then wait for help to find them.

Tracking vehicles in real time through Ground Traffic Control makes determining where to send a repair or tow truck easier and faster

Data exonerates safe drivers.

City of Hillsboro departments used to be in a difficult position when they received a report with concerns about a fleet vehicle or driver. City staff had to determine what happened and who was at fault. Often, they had to side with either the community member or city employee based exclusively on testimony.

Departments now investigate reports by looking at vehicle data in Ground Traffic Control. Stiffler recalls, “We got a call once that one of our street sweepers destroyed a sign and [Ground Traffic Control] showed that none of our vehicles were even in the vicinity at the time.”

LD TCUs save time from start to auction.

Hillsboro is migrating their compatible fleet to the Zonar LD, which is a plug-and-play TCU for light-duty vehicles. Fleet technicians install the Zonar LD in minutes, without special tools. When it’s time to offload city vehicles that have aged out, decommissioning for auction is faster and easier.

Tracking snow plows in winter weather.

Light-duty vehicles are tracked with a Zonar LD, but specialized vehicles such as street sweepers and snow plows are outfitted with a Zonar V4 TCU. The city tracks which streets have been serviced, and lets community members know where a vehicle might be in relation to their neighborhood if they call to request servicing.

The Hillsboro Public Works Department deploys the plows that treat and clear the streets when it snows. But losing track of which roads have been serviced is easy during a busy weather event. Prior to implementing Zonar solutions, dispatchers had to call drivers to find out if they’d plowed an area; a method that that took valuable resources away from other tasks.

Our open API enables the city to connect the Zonar data stream to the its real-time mapping and analytics platform, ArcGIS GeoEvent Server. This data feed delivers essential insight for making every route efficient and accurate. Hillsboro Public Works Department sees which roads have been treated or plowed (and when), as well as roads that still need service.

With these insights, Hillsboro optimizes each snow plow route to keep the streets as clear as possible. Each new shift sees the previous shift’s progress and takes it from there.

When the time came up to stay with Zonar or choose another provider, Stiffler says, “The API was just one reason we elected to stay with Zonar. We were confident that our needs were being met, and would be met if they changed in the future.”

Environmental compliance is stronger.

The City of Hillsboro is subject to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental reporting requirements. Particularly in relation to street sweeping.

Drivers were required to manually report their miles after each shift. However, mileage reporting without any AVL telemetry is time consuming and often inaccurate.

The reporting functionality within Ground Traffic Control makes reporting easier and more accurate. Stiffler explains. “We can show how many miles we’ve driven and, more specifically, how many miles we have actually swept.”

Parks & Rec. sees a chance to save fuel.

Tracking driver behavior and fuel use through Ground Traffic Control provided an opportunity for the City Parks & Recreation to reduce idling. Data showed that in the winter, drivers started their vehicle, then went back inside while their vehicles warmed up.

If they were distracted or sidetracked, their vehicle would idle for up to half an hour; sometimes more.

According to Stiffler, “After sharing data with the department on idling times, drivers were able to make the needed adjustments, saving both fuel and time.”

Our commitment to support shows.

Zonar is committed to supporting our customers throughout our partnership. Stiffler can tell. “Our customer rep, David Pak, is fantastic. He’s knocked it out of the park and is absolutely phenomenal.”